Due to her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan and her pregnancy-imposed break from acting, Natalie Portman has been the subject of much talk in the movie world. When will she come back to work? What will her first post-Oscar role be? There have been reports of filmmakers as big as the Wachowskis actively recruiting her to come on board their projects, but still no word of an official signing. That is until now. Sorry, Hollywood directors, but Terrence Malick has beaten you to the punch. And, just to smear some dirt in your wounds, he’s done it twice. Deadline Ottawa is reporting that Portman has signed on to be in not one, but two of Malick’s upcoming projects, both shooting in 2012, which will mark her much anticipated return to acting. The first film is the Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett-starring Knight of the Cups, which is scheduled to start shooting this summer. The second is a film called Lawless, which sees Portman teamed again with Bale and Blanchett, in addition to other notable names like Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara. This film is scheduled to shoot in the fall.

Director Zhang Yimou is no stranger to epic period films that meld action with artistry to often stunningly beautiful effect, but films like Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower exist far from the real world. They feature their fair share of drama and loss, but wuxia films as a genre also include physical and acrobatic exaggerations that firmly remove it from the realm of reality. The director’s latest film, The Flowers of War, does not allow itself that luxury. It’s 1937, and the Chinese city of Nanjing has fallen to the invading Japanese army. Amid the citizens rushing to escape what will soon become a concrete prison are a group of Catholic schoolgirls who literally missed the boat and are now trying to make it back to their convent. The majority of them survive the run through the city, and they’re soon joined by an American named John Miller (Christian Bale) who had been hired to perform mortician duties on the recently deceased priest in charge of the convent. Miller’s only interest is in getting paid and getting out, but the arrival of a group of local courtesans complicates matters. Japanese soldiers attack the convent and while the prostitutes hide the young girls are chased and assaulted until Miller, unable to ignore the screams echoing through the church, dons the priest’s robes and stands up to the invaders. His actions halt further tragedy, but they only delay the seemingly inevitable. Now Miller, acting as unintended [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Wow. Wow is all there is. With all eyes on Christopher Nolan to find a fitting ending for the massive phenomenon that he’s turned into an even more massive phenomenon, the director and everyone involved seems to have pointed beyond the bleachers and out into the parking lot with this full length trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. It’s got Christian Bale getting existential as Batman, Tom Hardy as Bane looking ominous with a bomb and Anne Hathaway representing the unwashed masses as a masked Selina Kyle. In fact, it’s got enough red meat to make any old fan happy – and to prove that Nolan and company are not shying away from the greatness of their challenge.

Fine, maybe you didn’t ask for it, but someone did! Incidentally, the person who wrote the film and wants to direct it! Weird, right? Commercial director (and second unit director for The Social Network) Noble Jones reportedly pitched a new take on Bret Easton Ellis‘s American Psycho (which of course already has already has its own, very fine, cinematic adaptation from Mary Harron, starring Christian Bale in one of his best roles, which hit theaters in 2000) to Lionsgate a few months ago, followed that by turning in a script within the last few weeks, and is now seeing an uptick in interest thanks to the entertainment industry’s insidery tracking reports. Thanks, assistants at WME who run these things, thanks a lot. Now that we’ve got all the bile out of the way, who the hell is Noble Jones and just what does he want to do with Bret Easton Ellis’s classic villain, popped-collar investment banker serial killer Patrick Bateman? Well, Deadline Rochester calls Jones “a Fincher protege,” which is most certainly not a bad thing. His take on the material moves the action to present day, taking it out of the gloriously yuppie-fied ’80s world that the novel and Harron’s film both lived in (which was sort of, oh, I don’t know, essential to the meat of the story). The film is deemed as “a down and dirty new version” and will reportedly by a low budget affair. The film has not yet been greenlit, but is in “early [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

A little birdie just dropped into my inbox, gravel-voiced a question about where the drugs were, and then told me that the prologue to The Dark Knight Rises will be in theaters 7 months before the rest of the movie. Those of you who want a taste of what Christopher Nolan and company are cooking up can get your six-minute fill on December 16th. Fans in the UK will have to wait a tick longer, but they’ll have their screens filled with Batman-y goodness on December 21st (which is the day the Magi spotted the Bane-shaped constellation in the sky and headed toward Gotham (true story)). Other international dates will be released soon. So will it be coming to a town near you, or will you have to pay for gas? Scope out the list of where it will be playing and see for yourself:

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly collective of links and thoughts breaking down all the news and great essays from around the movie blogosphere. A celebration of quality programming, if you will. Thus, it becomes quality programming in and of itself. In short, it’s worth however long it takes you to read to the end (where we’ve strategically placed a Christopher Nolan-themed video as your reward). We begin this evening with the internet’s story of the night, Daniel Day-Lewis’ awesome Abe Lincoln beard, as shot by Virginia local Michael Phillips. He snapped a shot of the highly method actor in a Richmond restaurant (not far from where Steven Spielberg’s film is currently in production). Basically it looks like Abraham Lincoln with jeans on. So yes, that works. Also worth noting: It’s being reported that Day-Lewis has not dropped his Lincoln accent since March. That’s one hardcore mother-effing emancipator, right there.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a silly little thing. Just a thing that some people read. Nothing special, really, just the world’s foremost late-night independent movie news and editorial round-up. You know, the usual. We begin tonight with a picture of President Obama and Bill Murray meeting at the Towson v. Oregon State basketball game this past weekend. I wonder if the Prez got a chance to grill him about all the recent Ghostbusters 3 rumors. We’ve already submitted a formal inquiry to the White House, with no response as of time of our publishing deadline.

Terrence Malick has long been thought of as a difficult-to-work-with perfectionist. He once went a stretch of twenty years without making any movies at all, and when he is actively making them, they usually only come out once every five years or so. But lately he’s been filming things at a pace completely new to his career. After finishing his 2011 release The Tree of Life, he jumped pretty directly into making a still-untitled romantic film starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. Also, there have been rumblings that even before that film was finished, Malick had already lined up another movie that would star Christian Bale. It turns out that wasn’t all of the story, though. In somewhat shocking news, Variety is reporting that Malick already has plans to make two more movies, which will shoot back to back in 2012. The common thread between both films is that they will star Bale and Cate Blanchett in featured roles, but this isn’t some kind of series. Both films are separate stories, completely independent of one another. The first is said to be called Lawless, and in addition to Bale and Blanchett, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, and Haley Bennett will also star. The second project will be called Knight of Cups, and will see actress Isabel Lucas join the duo.

Would it surprise you to learn that the original title for Christian Bale’s upcoming Chinese epic, The Flowers of War, was actually Blood Mist? It shouldn’t after watching the trailer below which is absolutely filled with the stuff. Also, I’m just making up the bit about it being the original title but there really is a lot of it in this trailer. Bale plays an American named John Haufman who finds himself trapped in the Chinese city of Nanking during the Japanese invasion in 1937. He dons a dead priest’s robe as a way to stay alive and soon finds himself responsible for the safety of a group of schoolgirls and a gaggle of prostitutes when the Japanese soldiers come looking to party. It’s a fact-based story that touches on the despicable acts committed by the invading army and covered with raw power in Iris Chang’s excellent The Rape of Nanking. The film is reportedly China’s most expensive production yet, and it’s easy to see where all the money went after watching the footage below. Director Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) has turned his visually adept eye to a slightly more modern time period, and the results look impressively visceral and stylish. Check out the trailer below.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news and tidbit (that word makes it giggle) column that is back in full swing this week. A special thanks to Cole Abaius for picking up the reigns last week while usual author Neil Miller was locked away in a 3×3 ft. cell in preparation for Fantastic Fest. No, there was not a reason for it. And yes, he has emerged ready for a bare-knuckle boxing match (or two). But first, the news… We begin tonight with a shot of Christian Bale and Terrence Malick walking through the crowds of the Austin City Limits music festival this past weekend here in Austin, TX. It caused quite a commotion with the crowds, many of whom were there to see acts like Bright Eyes, Stevie Wonder and Kanye West. As a surprise, they got T. Malick in that silly hat.

In 2003, director Park Chan-wook made his presence in the film world felt by crafting Oldboy, a revenge film about a guy who is mysteriously imprisoned in a shabby room for fifteen years and then is one day released and given a limited amount of time to find and take vengeance on his captor. It rose above the legions of other rank and file revenge films through superior crafting and a great lead performance by Min-sik Choi. It was good, everyone liked it, and people were happy. Flash forward to recent months, and now there’s news that Spike Lee is going to direct a movie called Oldboy, a revenge film about a man who gets locked in a shabby room for fifteen years and is then one day released and given a limited amount of time to find and take vengeance on his captor. We don’t know if it’s going to be any good, everyone is mad that something else they like is being remade, and no one is happy. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Maybe some people are happy. And maybe I could be coming around on this project as well, because at the very least Lee has just found a great actor to play whatever his version of the Oldboy protagonist will be called. It’s been a rumor for a while that Josh Brolin was at the top of the wish list to star in this film, and now Deadline Ami-dong confirms that those rumors were most likely [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Since news is pretty slow after the summer months (since everyone goes on vacation after their vacation), the biggest announcement isn’t really news at all. It’s more of a dartboard for movie fans to throw sharp objects at, but that definitely has its place in our wonderful world of speculation. So put on your opinion hats, and let ‘er rip. According to Variety, Christian Bale has avoided choosing a project to work on after The Dark Knight Rises because he wanted to focus all of his energies on playing Bruce Wayne one last time. However, there’s also a list of movies that have their doors open to the actor: Clint Eastwood’s re-remake of A Star is Born starring Beyonce Knowles (Harry’s younger sister) Michael Mann’s securities exchange fraud drama Gold Spike Lee’s Old Boy remake Scott Cooper’s 1970s revenge throwback Out of the Furnace Darren Aronofsky’s Biblical epic Noah There’s no information beyond that, and it’s perfectly possible that Bale could pass on all of these projects in order to opt for something else, but given the list here, what movie would you rather see him in? My money’s on his beard-growing ability for Noah, but Variety’s announcement also ignores reports that Bale will be teaming up again with Terrance Malick. That could take years, but it’s at least something solid. What do you think? Where does Bale fit best?

Usually when a filmmaker goes on a string of making a bunch of movies it’s nothing to bat an eyelash at. Hey, he’s a filmmaker, what did you expect? But when that filmmaker happens to be Terrence Malick, then it’s a whole other story. Malick is an infamous perfectionist who usually takes at least five years or so between everything he makes. Dude even waited twenty between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line. It’s weird that despite the fact his newest film Tree of Life was just in theaters, he already has his next picture in the can. But it’s even weirder that before that picture has been put together and given a release date and what not, Twitch has already unearthed some information about the next movie he’s making a move on. Once he gets his Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams romance Voyage of Time out of the way, he’s said to be starting up a new film, which will star Christian Bale. That Bale is in the film shouldn’t come as a surprise, he’s worked with Malick before in The New World and he almost took the role Affleck eventually filled in Voyage of Time; but the fact that we look to be getting three Malick movies in two years is a gigantic shock. Who put what in this guy’s Wheaties? Does Malick know something that we don’t, or did he just blow all his money on a gambling debt or something?

Zack Snyder has been involved with the upcoming, set in Afghanistan drama The Last Photograph from the very beginning. Since the project’s inception he has served as a co-writer and a producer. When you hear that Snyder is involved with a drama set in a war torn country, the concept instantly sends up some red flags. How would his flashy, comic-booky style fit with more real-world, dramatic subject matter than men in loin clothes eviscerating each other or girls in short skirts fighting giant robots? In the past this wasn’t too much of a concern, however, as Snyder was just in a producer’s role. The director’s job was going to go to someone else, and that someone else ended up being The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo helmer Niels Arden Oplev. He’s good, right? Yay, everyone cheers, and we all live happily ever after. Not so fast. Twitch is now reporting that Oplev has dropped out of the project for mysterious reasons, and seeing as he is already so engaged in it’s development, Snyder is going to step into the director’s role as an easy fit. The Last Photograph should fit perfectly into Snyder’s schedule, as he can slip right into shooting after he finishes work on the Superman reboot Man of Steel. That brings up some problems. Will Christian Bale’s reporter character be doing slow motion spin moves, snapping off photographs in mid air, while mortar shells explode around him? Will we get a scene of Sean Penn’s character [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Bootlegs suck. If I wanted to watch a grainy movie trailer from someone who can’t keep his camera still, I’d just find a Paul Greengrass film. Here as an alternative, officially, is the Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer straight from the horse’s mouth over at the Facebook page. Fortunately, The Film Stage has embedded it properly, so we can deliver it straight to you, dear reader. There isn’t much to say, and you’ve probably skipped all this anyway. How do you spell ‘anticipation?’

While enduring the mild pain caused by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, I thought to myself, “Man, this Sam character is a real prick. What type of people actually like this person? This is the best savior we could get?” I then realized that I often find myself thinking this nowadays. We rarely get great, likable heroes or genuine badasses on film anymore. Most are either mopey, passive, or do morally questionable acts. I’m not referring to anti-heroes — although, I do include one on the list — but, rather, the unintentionally lame mainstream characters that aren’t the most compelling or charming. A few of these not-so-heroic characters aren’t due to bad acting. As you’ll notice, Leonardo DiCaprio made the list for Inception, where he gave a solid performance. While I wouldn’t say that most of the actors featured here impressed anyone, DiCaprio and a few others certainly did. Here are ten mainstream characters that exhibit very little heroics:

Sad news today for Jiroemon Kimura, the oldest man in the world. Despite being the closest qualified to play the 600-year-old Noah (of Ark), the supercentenarian will not see his dream of acting for Darren Aronofsky come true. According to Vulture, that honor very well may go to the much, much younger Christian Bale. Fortunately, Aronofsky is in talks with one of the few actors working today that could actually find a way to become 600 years old. No doubt it would involve losing 40 pounds, growing a formidable white beard, and giving himself diabetes. Of course this addition would help out on the business side of things (if you care about that), but more importantly, it would combine a hell of an actor with a hall of a director. Two men willing to take chances, working on a Biblical epic where the last antediluvian patriarch, with a direct line to God, builds a giant vessel and marches two of every animal on board. Who says creativity is dead? Here’s hoping that Bale takes the role. He was looking too healthy and normal anyway.

Sometimes, all it takes is a voice. Sometimes, it also takes Christian Bale pantomiming that he’s riding a horse while singing about his past in the wild west. Sometimes, yes sometimes, that’s all it takes to make every girl you know obsessed about a movie. Plus, there’s corruption, scandal, poverty, dirty kids singing and dancing, and papes. Lots and lots of papes.

The Last Photograph is a story about a war reporter in Afghanistan who is the only survivor of an attack on a group of Americans, and an ex-special ops soldier who is related to the victim of a kidnapping. The soldier has come to find and rescue his relation, and he convinces the reporter to help identify his attackers/the kidnappers in exchange for letting him tag along and report the story. Christian Bale is already set to play the reporter, and now Sean Penn is reportedly close to signing on to play the part of the soldier. I see this move as a risk. Everybody knows that Liam Neeson is the one who rakes in the big bucks when he’s hunting down kidnappers, not Sean Penn. The film is going to be directed by The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s Niels Arden Oplev with the 300 gang of Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, and Gianni Nunnari producing. No funding for the picture is yet in place, but Dark Castle is reportedly close to inking a deal that would give them the task, with Warner Bros. handling the distributing end of things. With a couple of actors like Bale and Penn on board, this is a film that’s sure to get a lot of attention. And with a couple of actors like Bale and Penn on board, this is a film that’s sure to have a tense set. My best wishes go out to Niels Arden Oplev, who I think impeccably directed [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In all The Dark Knight Rises news is printable news, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that the film will be heading to downtown Pittsburgh this summer for a few weeks of its shooting. Director Christopher Nolan made a statement saying, “Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. We have been able to find everything we were looking for here, and I am excited to spend the summer in Pittsburgh with our final installment of Batman.” What is it that Nolan was able to find in his trips to Pittsburgh? The director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, Dawn Keezer, said, “They’re still nailing down actual locations, but what they really fell in love with was the diversity of architecture and the gorgeous buildings that we still have in Downtown Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas.” Before this, the largest bulk of Nolan’s Batman franchise has been shot in Chicago. As someone who spends a lot of time in downtown Chicago, let me clue Pittsburgh residents in on what they can expect from the magical experience of a Batman movie being filmed in your hometown. Streets will be closed, vital streets that people need to drive on. Sidewalks will be unusable, crammed with thousands of gawkers hoping to catch a glimpse of God only knows what from thousands of feet away. Every day important local news will be pushed aside for stories stating simply that the shooting is still taking place, probably with some asinine quotes from sun burnt onlookers. Your life will be made [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]